In Vitro Propagation of Acetylcholine Receptor‐Specific Human T Lymphocytes with Autologous Epstein‐Barr Virus‐Transformed B Lymphocytes a

Purified autoimmune T cells can be grown as cell lines by repetitive c y c ~ L. i i m ulation with histocompatible antigen-presenting cells plus antigen or with interleukin2. In animal models, antigen-presenting cells can be obtained from syngeneic lymphoid tissue. In the human system, however, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBM) are usually the only source of antigen-presenting cells available. To some extent, HLADR-matched allogeneic PBM may be used as a substitute, but this is not optimal because class I1 histocompatibility antigens other than HLA-DR may function as restriction elements of human T cells.’ Since it is known that B-lymphoblastoid cells are able to present certain antigens to T cells,2” we established an Epstein-Barr virus (EBV-)-transformed B-cell line from a patient in whom we had previously isolated acetylcholine receptor (AChR)-specific T cells.’ Mitomycin C-treated B cells were found to effectively present Torpedo membrane AChR to the autologous AChR-specific T cells. The optimal stimulating antigen concentration was higher than 20 pg/ml AChR with EBV-blasts as compared to 5-20 pg/ml with PBM as antigen-presenting cells. AChR-induced proliferation of the AChR-specific T cells was maximal in the presence of 0.31.0 x lo5 EBV-blasts in round-bottom microtiter culture wells.’ With